UK Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt announced the installation of a hotline linking his office with counterparts in the Japanese government in a wide ranging speech on foreign policy (link) delivered at PolicyExchangeUK on 31 Oct 2018.

As an indication of how he sees Britain’s diplomacy developing in the post-Brexit era, Hunt announced that to “allow for the strengthening of important alliances”, a secure phone connection with Japan has been installed.

A connection was also added to counterparts in France and Germany.

The speech placed this move in the context of a post-Brexit global Britain foreign policy that consists of:

“..adding links to the chain that will allow us to play our part in linking the countries that share our values.”